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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26415211">Toph's Best Birthday Party Ever</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneTwoVillainess/pseuds/OneTwoVillainess'>OneTwoVillainess</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Bending (Avatar TV), Bisexual Disaster Sokka (Avatar), Gay Zuko (Avatar), How Do I Tag, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, It's a wild ride, M/M, No beta reader, No beta reader we die like Lu Ten, POV Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings, birthday fic, dinner party au</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:48:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>18,378</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26415211</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneTwoVillainess/pseuds/OneTwoVillainess</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"I’ve gathered you all here for an evening of delicious food, fun, and entertainment. Tonight we shall feast, and standing up here in front of all you I already know that this really is going to be a night to remember,"</p>
<p>And that they would. It's truly a night they will never forget, but would probably, most definitely, like to. On a somewhat related note, Toph is no longer allowed to plan her own birthday parties and is banned from picking the restaurants from now on.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang &amp; Katara &amp; Sokka &amp; Toph &amp; Zuko (Avatar), Aang &amp; Toph Beifong &amp; Katara &amp; Sokka &amp; Suki &amp; Zuko, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Sokka &amp; Suki &amp; Zuko, Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang &amp; Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong &amp; The Gaang, Toph Beifong &amp; Zuko</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>42</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Toph's Best Birthday Party Ever</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Zuko gives himself one more look over and readjusts how his shirt is tucked into the top of his pants before he exits his room and makes his way into the living room. <br/>Zuko’s wearing a bright red faux silk dress shirt Toph had found for him one day while thrifting at the Laundry Line together. It’s bright red and has two dragons entwined together across the back, one blue while the other was a dark red, and they were breathing fire the color of the other’s scales. The dragons even appear again, this time separated on the shirt’s collar. The shirt seemed appropriate for Toph’s birthday dinner because it reminded him of her and the patrons where they were dining tonight are almost likely going to think it completely inappropriate for the venue, which Toph will adore enough more.<br/>Why Toph even wants him and the rest of their friends to dress up and go to dinner at an upscale upper ring restaurant is beyond him, but it’s how she wanted to spend her birthday so here he is. Dressed in a purely unique dress shirt, tight black suit pants, and with a black suit jacket slung over his shoulder, waiting for her and the rest of their friends to be ready to go. He sits down on the beat up couch in the apartment he shares with uncle and Toph and Momo, whenever she’s not staying in Ba Sing Se’s university’s dorms.<br/>A few minutes pass by before Toph emerges from her bedroom. She’s wearing a dark forest green jumpsuit with spaghetti straps layered over a pristine white crop. Her hair’s pulled up out of her face and off her neck into a smooth high bun. And she’s wearing a single piece of jewelry, a necklace with a thin chain with a flying pig pendant dangling from it; Zuko knows that’s one of the few gifts from Toph’s mother that she actually likes and is willing to wear on special occasions. She has her hands shoved into the jumpsuit’s pockets when she enters the room and she doesn’t bother removing them to catch herself as she flops down onto the couch beside him. <br/>Zuko pulls up Hulu on the tv and tries to find an episode of Drunk History they haven’t watched yet. He settles for one the Northern water tribe episode and hits play. Apparently one time a girl from the Southern Water Tribe traveled to her tribe’s northern sister and single handedly defeated the patriarchy by dueling some old sexist geezer that refused to train her in her culture’s traditional arts, good for her.<br/>Toph cheers as the girl hurls an ice shard at the guy’s face “I feel like Katara would totally have fought that dumb ass sexist bastard,”.<br/>“Oh, yeah definitely,” agrees Zuko, grinning as the girl slams the old man’s face into a snowbank, “and she’d totally have won too,”.<br/>Zuko hears keys in the front door and turns to watch as Jin walks in. She’s wearing a long sleeve dress that ends right above her knees. It’s a pale green frock style dress with gold accents along the seams. Her hair still has it’s signature fly aways but the rest of her hair, minus the bangs, is pulled up into a high ponytail. She closes the door behind her and joins them in the living room and in watching the tv.<br/>“Happy birthday, Toph,” she says sitting down in the arm chair across the coffee table from them.<br/> “Yep, your welcome for existing,” Zuko snorts and they go back to watching this girl fuck that old guy up.<br/>The next time the front door opens in walks Mai, Ty Lee, and Suki. Zuko thinks he can remember Ty Lee mentioning how she and Suki were going to stop on their way over to the apartment from where they’re living at the Kiyoshi warrior’s house to pick up Mai so they could all show up together.<br/>Mai’s wearing a long dark dress that he thought was black at first until she walked further into the room and the light on the dress changed to reveal that it was instead a dark red. It has long fitted sleeves and she’s wearing a single black choker as a necklace with matching matching black earrings.<br/>Where Mai’s outfit was dark and dramatic, Ty Lee’s is light and simple and reminiscent of her personal day to day style. She’s wearing a mid-length short sleeve dress that’s pale pink and loose. It flows with her small movements as she walks in after Mai into the room and with her hair in it’s usual style of braid bouncing behind on each step she takes a seat next to Toph on the couch.<br/>Suki enters the apartment last and closes the door behind her. She’s wearing a deep green pant suit that has gold buttons on the jacket as an accent. And with flawlessly applied foundation, bright red eyeshadow, and eyeliner sharp enough to kill a man she looks prepared for either an upscale birthday dinner party or to go to war, maybe even both. Her hair’s styled in half up-half down do and there multiple gold rings adorning her fingers. She squishes in next to Mai in the arm chair and after a few hellos and happy birthday wishes they settle in to continue watching Drunk History as they wait for the others.<br/>They talk and wait around for a few minutes until Sokka, Katara, and Aang show up together.<br/>Katara’s wearing a flowy short sleeve light blue dress that brushes at the top of her knees, it’s adorned with scattered pieces of glitter throughout the fabric and as she walks they catch the light and throw it, creating a soft glow around her. Her mother’s necklace is at its usual place around her throat but she’s added a silver bracelet and earrings to her ensemble.<br/>Aang’s wearing, as usual, his blue arrow beanie over his freshly shaved head but instead of his usual jeans or joggers he’s wearing a beige suit tonight. There’s a soft yellow dress shirt buttoned up all the way underneath his suit jacket and the light blue tie he’s wearing matches Katara’s dress and it’s revealed to also have glitter mixed in with the fabric when it catches the light just right as the trio make their way into the apartment and find seats of their own.<br/>Sokka’s wearing a patterned bright blue suit that is adorned with flowers in every imaginable color, barely leaving any space to see the bright blue background behind them. He’s wearing a simple white dress shirt with the top few buttons unbuttoned underneath the jacket. He joins Zuko on the couch after closing the front door behind him.<br/>Toph, “Well Damn,” says Toph and everyone tears their attention away from the tv to face here, “Y’all look hot as fuck, in fact almsot as hot has me,”. Zuko’s surprised that he can’t actually hear the collective eye roll of everyone in the apartment.<br/>“Thank you, Toph,” beams Ty Lee, “I love your jumpsuit,”.<br/>“It has pockets,” she says and sticks her hands further into her pockets, wiggling them around to prove it. Ty Lee squeals at that revelation and everyone nods appreciatively. Too many designers don’t bother giving women pockets. It’s totally sexist and lame.<br/>Once the segment on the badass southern water tribe girl single handingly defeating the northern water tribe patriarchy, Katara claps her hands together, “Alright everyone go to the bathroom now before we leave. It’s a long drive to the upper ring and I don’t want to have to stop for anyone to use the bathroom on the way there,”.<br/>“Yeah, no potty breaks,” says Sokka “so empty your pea sized bladders now kiddos,”.<br/>Aang nods before standing up and making his way to the bathroom Katara follows him to start a queue.<br/>As they’re leaving Toph flicks Sokka in the arm, “This is a mature adult party for adults aged eighteen and over. We aren’t kids. Those days are long gone. Tonight is an adult themed dinner party for my like minded adult peers,”.<br/>Suki grimaces, “Please stop saying adult party. Every time you say it it makes it sound like an orgy,” and after having that pointed out to them everyone else in the group grimaces right alongside her.<br/>“Oh, it’s definitely kinda like an orgy,” decides Toph, grinning. “We’ve donned fancy costumes, are going to what I assume is a poorly light room where we’re going to be trying stuff we've never thought we’d try before, and we’re going to be stuffing strange things with textures we’ve yet to ever experience into one of our many holes and in a few hours it will be exiting through another hole,” Zuko grimaces, why do his friends have to be so weird. Over to the side a toilet flushes, “And if all goes well you all are going to be trying to convince everyone here to agree to never speak of this night or the things you’ve all done ever again, but you and everyone else will never be able to fully forget them,”she finishes.<br/>Zuko turns in his seat to properly look at the grinning girl, “Toph WTF!?!!?!” he yells. She shrugs. Everyone shakes their heads in an attempt to physically dislodge that description og the night ahead of them so they can forget whatever the fuck that was.<br/>Katara exits the bathroom and makes her way back over to the living area, “Seriously, no one else is going to use the bathroom?” she asks. No one gets up. “You guys might as well try,” she nags.<br/>Jin shrugs, “We’ll be fine, anyways there’s probably a bathroom there,”.<br/>Suki nods, “It’s alright Katara, if anyone realizes that they have to go when we’re in the car they can just hold it till we get to the restaurant,”.<br/>Katara sighs, “Fine,”.<br/>Everyone peels themselves off the couch and armchairs and the group makes their way down stairs to the front of the Jasmine Dragon where they take pictures and fool around until their Lyfts get there. Ty Lee, Mai, Jin, and Suki head off to the side to take more pictures after they finished their big group picture and drag Aang with them to act as their camera man as they try to find better lighting. Zuko, Sokka, Toph, and Katara stay in front of the store in case their Lyfts arrive early. But after a few minutes it’s gotten boring and entertainment has had to be found where they could.<br/>“Get down from that lamppost right now you two,” yells Katara.<br/>“But it's fun,” whines Sokka.<br/>“Yeah, it’s not hurting anyone Sweetness,” yells out Toph, climbing higher.<br/>Katara throws up her hands in frustration, they’re not even at the restaurant yet and people are already misbehaving, “You’re going to get your clothes dirty or break it or both,”. Zuko sighs, that was practically a suggestion of what the two lamp post climbing idiots should do next.<br/>Sokka spins around the lamp post to face Katara and shoots her a grin, “But we already took pictures so it’s okay,”.<br/>She glares at the smiling face of her brother, “We still have to go to dinner and I don’t want for you to have to wait outside on the curb alone, all night, just because they wouldn’t let you in because you had to go and get dirt on your pants,”.<br/>Toph swings herself around the pole again, “But it’s not even dirty. Look, it’s clean enough to get eat of-”<br/>Katara, who had been walking closer and closer to the two idiots, apparently had decided to give up on talking them down and instead chooses to pry Toph off the lamp post before she can finish whatever demonstration she was going to give them on the cleanliness of Ba Sing Se city lamp posts, “Oh no, I am not letting you lick a lamp post,” yells Katara as she plucks Toph up off the pole, “You’ll check a disease and then die,”.<br/>Zuko watches on amused as Toph struggles her way out of Katara’s grip and makes her way over to him has Katara moves on to trying to pry Sokka off next, “No, I wouldn’t have,” pouts Toph “and it’s not even winter so it’s not like my tongue would stick anyways, plus that’s not even a real thing,” she says giving a little half shrug off her shoulders.<br/>Katara manages to pry Sokka off the post too and after brushing some none existent dirt off of himself as he glares at his sister he turns around to face Toph and Zuko. He holds up a finger to interrupt Toph’s dismissal of how frozen poles + tongues= a bad idea, “Actually,” he starts, pausing to clear his throat, “I can confirm that that myth is true. Remember that time back in high school when you were convinced it wasn’t true and I was arguing that it was and you dared me to prove it and said it wouldn’t work and well-”<br/>Zuko tilts his head at his boyfriend and asks “Did Toph scam you into licking a frozen pole?”, cutting him off.<br/>“Ahhhhh…..maybe,” is a pretty clear answer that yes, Toph really did con him into licking a frozen pole in the middle winter by pretending that she didn’t believe in a scientific fact. It would almost be impressive how many times Toph has managed to scam Sokka into doing stupid shit if it wasn’t plain sad that Zuko knows for a fact that Sokka always has and always will fall for her pranks. It seems he’s doomed to accept every single dare she tricks him into that will somehow end up with him having multiple non-life threatening injuries and getting a lecture from Katara after they’ve left the ER.<br/>Zuko shakes his head, “And if it was winter right now could you guarantee you wouldn’t have ended up scammed into doing it, again?<br/>“Okay in my defense,” says Sokka holding up his palms, “the first time I did it I wasn’t scammed it was a science experiment that confirmed my hypothesis that yes, your tongue can and will freeze to a metal pool if it’s licked in the middle of winter after school one day,”.<br/>Zuko has to close his eyes, “The first time?” he asks, massaging his forehead.<br/>“It’s only a viable experiment if the results can be replicated,” he can hear be wined off to his right somewhere.<br/>Toph’s standing next to Zuko and nudges him with her fist, “Wow, you really picked a real genius there didn’t ya,”.<br/>Zuko opens his eyes and punches her, “It’s not his fault that no one can compete with your genius level ability to scam and con anyone and everyone you meet,”.<br/>Toph brings her hand up to her chin to stroke at it with her thumb “True, true, very true,” she says grinning up at him.<br/>A few minutes later their different Lyfts arrive and they split up into smaller groups so they can make their way to the upper ring and the fancy dancy restaurant Toph had specially selected for her birthday, she claims they have the best cheesecake in the city but Zuko will have to see about that. It’s a long ride through the winding streets of the middle ring to the upper ring but soon enough they’ve arrived.<br/>“Damn,” says Sokka, letting out an apprentice whistle next to Zuko as they make their way into the restaurant’s lobby. Looking up at the entirely chandeliers hanging above their heads and illuminating the waiting area he has to agree, Damn this place is nice. “No wonder she told us we needed to polish our shit up and dress to impress,”.<br/>“This whole place is using, like, super expensive candles,” whispers Jin, eyeing the candelabras on some nearby tables.<br/>Suki, bobs her head “Yeah, I think they can afford it Jin,” she hisses. <br/>Katara, pulls at her dress down to smother out the wrinkles from the car ride, “I think they can afford a lot of things,” responds Katara, pulling at her dress in an attempt to smother out its wrinkles from the car ride.<br/>Sokka nudges him in the side and points toward something off to the side, “Dude, look that sick ass Lobster tank. That thing’s huge,”<br/>“I love it,” gushes Aang. “It's like a mini swimming pool for them where they all hang out with their friends with plenty of space to spread out and not be forced to be on top of one another, and it’s adorable. I think that one waved at me,”.<br/>Sokka nods, “It makes it so much easier to see them and pick which one you want,”.<br/>Aang gasps, “OMS, people can pick their own lobster. Can we pick one and adopt one of them and take them home and love them?”. Zuko has to stifle his giggles.<br/> “Aang-” starts Katara.<br/>Aang holds up his palms, “Okay, okay, I’ll admit it. It’s true. Yes, we’d need to adopt more than one. We don’t want them to be lonely and we can’t just separate them from their friends like that, that would be rude,”.<br/>“Aang-” tries Zuko.<br/>“Okay, okay,” continues Aang “You’re right it’s better for them to be here. This is where their home is and it’s what they’re familiar with and where all their friends are. It’s best for them this way” he finishes deflating a bit but with a small smile on his face. Well, at least that resolved itself. Everyone just shakes their heads and silently agrees to not tell him.<br/>Done with their friends' antics Toph pushes her way to the front of the lobby and up to the host stand, “Reservation for nine under Beifong,”.<br/>The host bows his head to her, “Of course Lady Beifong, your table and everything else is prepared for you and your party,”.<br/>They are led through the restaurant past a bar area and tables filled with patrons swaddled up in their expensive clothes, secure in their wealth. Some people turn their noses up at the sight of their group and what they consider to be fancy clothes but they press on deeper into the dining area and towards what must be their table. The host stops in front of a long table with nine chairs around it. They’re lined up with the dead center of the establishment and it’s in front of the restaurant’s back wall, which appears to be covered in some sort of black glass that Zuko can’t see through, instead it reflects his friends faces back at him.  They’re able to see the whole restaurant from their table and the whole restaurant can see them.<br/>Toph claims the seat at the head of the table as her own and Zuko takes a seat directly to her left so the unscarred portion of his face is on her right of her and he’ll be able to hear her well, Sokka sits down beside him followed by Katara and Aang claiming the rest of the left side of the table as their own while Suki takes a seat directly to Toph’s right followed by Ty Lee next to her and than Mai and Jin.<br/>Once everyone’s settled in their seats Toph stands up from her seat at the head of the table and picks up her water glass and a knife. Despite already having everyone’s attention she still finds it necessary to bang her knife against the glass for a few minutes. Some people from the surrounding tables even pause their own meals to turn their attention to the sound and their disdain toward the group as it continues.<br/>Toph stops slamming her knife against her glass and clears her throat, “Put your cell phones on silent and shut your fucking mouths, the show is about to begin,” she pauses. A few seconds pass before everyone sighs. They dig out their phones, which were already on silent, they’re always on silent, why wouldn’t they be and they completely power them down. Once everyone’s finished and stopped fidgeting she continues,  “I’d say it’s good to see all of you here for my birthday dinner, but I am blind and the pleasure is really all yours,” she shakes her head and laughs at her own joke before she continues again. “Today I turned 19. I have matured. I have aged. No longer am I the young childish badass drummer that you all know and adore, now I am older, wiser, and an even more bitching drummer. I’ve gathered you all here for an evening of delicious food, fun, and entertainment. Tonight we shall feast, and standing up here in front of all you I already know that this really is going to be a night to remember,”. She chuckles to herself before continuing “A night we’ll remember for the rest of our lives. A night no one here will ever forget nor wish to. A night that will alter the course of our lives,” she beams at them. “And while I am loving this whole monologuing thing I am getting hungry. So,” she says clapping her hands together “let’s order,”.<br/>A waiter appears off to the side of Toph as she sits back down after her speech. She orders a whole pitcher of Shirley Temple’s and multiple large appetizers for the table, while the rest of their friends order individual appetizers for themselves.  When their waiter returns with the bright red liquid filled pitcher Toph has it placed squarely in front of her, sticks a straw in it, and starts slurping. Everyone stops what they were doing to stare at her, blinking in surprise.<br/>Suki puts down the empty glass she had picked up at the sight of their waiter carrying the pitcher and sighs, “I take it you’re not going to share then,”.<br/>Toph pauses her slurping and lets the straw fall out of her mouth, “Get your own,”.<br/>“Couldn’t you at least have poured it into a cup?” asks Katara, darting a glance around the restaurant to the tables around them that most have decided to pointedly ignore their group and their antics at this point. That was faster than expected, notes Zuko.<br/>“Nope,” says Toph and she goes back to slurping as their waiter goes around the table asking for everyone else’s drink orders. <br/>Time passes and the table gets their own drinks, they finish the appetizer course and the soups and salads that had been deposited down in front of them by black blazer clad wait staff. The food is delicious, notes Zuko. And okay, maybe now he understands exactly why Toph wanted her birthday dinner to be here. The soup was a nice creamy consistency and the spices in it were perfect. It had a nice kick to it but it didn’t overpower the soup’s natural flavors, instead it enhanced it for a balanced palette. Even the salads were good. They were so fresh. The dressing tasted house made. The croutons must have been house made too, because they weren’t stale and seemed reminiscent of what would be found in a small country bakery in a period piece drama. It was amazing. The table’s individual appetizers smelled and tasted divine too. Yeah, the food here is really good and the little happy sounds he can hear from the rest of the table are all the confirmation he needs to know they are enjoying themselves.<br/>They were so distracted by the good food in front of them that they were all quiet for once in their lives. Nobody would say anything until the waiter would come back and take their orders for the next course. Zuko feels deliriously happy and the smile on his face is mirrored on everyone else’s face too. Someone could tell him that the food was filled with drugs and alcohol and he might just believe them because of just how happy it’s making him, but that wouldn’t stop him from continuing to eat it.<br/>They order their entrees and side dishes. There are fresh pastas and red and green and white sauces. There’s steaks that are soft and tender and warm and juicy. There’s fish that just melts in their mouths. And everything was cooked in butter, light, velvety, delicious butter. Small salads, and fries, and different bread varieties are shared among them as sides. And none of the plates are ever empty, they’re replaced instead with something new, different and somehow even more delicious. It’s perfect. And then when they’re done with dinner and all the sides, and everything couldn’t have been better and they’re stuffed and there’s no way they could eat another bite, they’re brought dessert menus and order again.<br/>Toph is brought out a large slice of the house’s special cheesecake, hand delivered to her by the restaurant’s head pastry chef as the rest of the wait staff place towers and platters overflowing with an array of different desserts down onto the table. It’s a beautiful sight. Rivers and mountains of sweets, and light minty delicacies and fruity wonders. There are brownies and cookies and cream puffs and freshly made little candies and tarts and cupcakes and warm sweet breads and small dishes of ice cream and miniature cheesecakes and little cakes and bowls of pudding and gelatins and small pies and something whipped and light and gray. It’s more than beautiful. It’s ethereal. It’s majestic. It’s bringing tears to their eyes. And it’s all theirs. It’s extraordinary. Everyone has to stare at the food for a few seconds, afraid to blink for it might vanish. But then their eyes are dry and closing on their own accord and they have to close them, and so they do, and then they open them again, and it’s all still there. It’s still there. It’s beautiful. They begin to pile food onto their plates, happy and delirious.<br/>Toph has to cough and clear her throat to draw even a fraction of their attention away from the euphoria they know they could find in a mere crumb of the spread. But when they tear their eyes away from the food to see Toph gesturing to the lite candle on her cheesecake and herself, they remember. It’s Toph’s birthday. That’s why they’re here. That’s why they’ve found happiness. So, to much of the charagin of the other customers, their brains supply them the simple lyrics and they serenade her, “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Toph, happy birthday to you!” they sing.  “Happy birthday to you, you live in a zoo, you look like a monkey, and smell like one too” finishes Sokka for them. Their table erupts into chuckles and cheers when the song finishes and Toph blows out her candle before she starts shoveling the cheesecake into her mouth. That’s the only invitation they need and they too start to experience the dessert for themselves. <br/>It’s splendid. The brownies are filled with a gooey fudge. The cookies are shaped like different fruits and flowers, and the ones shaped like oranges taste like oranges, and the ones shaped like lemons taste like lemons, and the ones shaped like tulips have honey flicked on top of them as if left there by bees out collecting pollen. And the puddings are warm and now none of them have any film on top of them. The cheesecakes have cinnamon graham cracker crusts and their filing looks so solid and yet is deceptively soft and fluffy, lighter than air, and delicious. The candies are available on platters but also as decorations on some of the cakes, cookies, and tarts. Zuko doesn’t know the name of the gray stuff, he doesn't practically care, it’s decadent and perfect. Spirits, nothing he will ever eat will ever compare to this and that thought just makes him happier. He grabs a cream puff and sinks his teeth into it. There are flecks of vanilla bean in the cream filling. It’s perfect. And it’s real. And it’s all beautiful. He can never go back to before the him he was before he had tried this food, which must be what spirit’s taste when they consume their holy ambrosia. <br/>It’s truly perfect. The perfect epic finale to a night marked with a single constantly repeated and constantly disproven thought, surely there is nothing that can top this.<br/>Eventually they finish off their dessert and collapse down into their chairs, content and full and happy to be surrounded by friends for Toph’s birthday. They order some coffee to drink after dessert and they continue to talk and laugh well into the night.<br/>“Hey snozzles, I beat if you stick your hand in the lobster tank you wouldn’t be able to get a single lobster to snap at your fingers,” jests Toph.<br/>“They’d love to have the chance to snap at my fingers and would totally do it,”<br/>“Sokka, PLEASE don’t go sticking your arm in the lobster tank in the middle of this restaurant. There are other people around and you will lose a finger and I don’t want to have to go to the ER or get bleed on my dress tonight,”<br/>“Relax, Sugar Queen, like I said I doubt the lobsters would even WANT to snap at him,”<br/>“They’d love to snap at me,”<br/>“We don't want to disturb them, that tank is their home Sokka. How would you like it if a giant stuck his hand into your home and started waving it around, messing everything up, and scaring you,”<br/>“I’d think it was pretty dope Aang, and I will go on the record saying that I actively encourage any and all giants to do exactly that,”<br/>Everyone groans and then the conversation is changed.<br/>It gets later and the night reaches its natural conclusion, people start to gather up their coats and finish their drinks. It’s time to go home. Their waiter brings them out the check and places it down in the middle of the table before telling them to take their time and leaving them alone. As the check continues to sit there untouched everyone looks around at each other and starts shuffling in their seats, waiting for someone to make the first move.<br/>Katara coughs.<br/>Everyone looks around the table again. They shuffle around some more.<br/>Katara coughs again.<br/>No one says anything and the shuffling starts to slow.<br/>Katara sighs and leans across the table, she plucks up the check. She opens it and glances down at the total. She nearly chokes and when Aang leans over her shoulder to check it he pales. Sighing Sokka takes it out of Katara’s hands but when he sees it he drops the check. Jin and Mai check it and their eyes go wide before Ty Lee takes it from them and then Suki has to catch it when she drops it. When Suki passes the check to Zuko his eyes snap open, wide, he sets it down in front of Toph at the front of the table.<br/>It sits there untouched for a few minutes as Toph finishes drinking the latest pitcher of Shirely Temples that was placed in front of her. Katara clears her throat, “Thank you, Toph,” she says and everyone else follows suit, offering their own thanks.<br/>“Yes, yes I know, you’ve all finally realized that my birth really was the best thing to ever happen to any of you,” she goes back to slurping up the last of her drink.<br/>Zuko looks around at the table one more time before sighing. Toph’s going to need someone to read her the total and all the charges and to tell her where to sign. He starts leaning in and preparing to talk Toph through what the check says as he tries to do the mental math to figure out what an appropriate amount to tip would be, and you know what maybe he’ll just ask Sokka to do that math because there are too many commas in the bill for it to be simple mental math and his brain can now officially be classified as mush after that feast, no that experience.<br/>As he’s leaning in, Toph palms his face and pushes him away from her and back into his seat, “What are you all looking at me for?”.<br/>There are some mumbles around the table too low for Zuko to hear and everyone’s looking around at each other with nervous and confused expressions on their faces.<br/>“It’s my birthday, why on earth would you think I am paying?” barks out Toph throwing her hands up.<br/>Everyone stops, silent. They all have matching expressions of panic on their faces. Everyone’s eyebrows have shot up to their foreheads. Their eyes are wide. Their mouths are hanging open. Zuko knows he must look the exact same because he’s nearly had a heart attack. What does she mean she’s not paying?<br/>“But,” starts Katara, trying to recover from the shock, “but, but you chose the restaurant,”.<br/>Toph shrugs, “I like their cheesecake,”.<br/>“But if you pick the restaurant you pay,” presses on Katara and the rest of their friends nod their heads in agreement to her statement.<br/>“Well,” draws out Toph “if it’s your birthday you don’t pay, and it’s mine,”.<br/>Suki leans closer to Toph lowers her volume, “Toph, we’re a bunch of broke ass college students who already blew all their money on these fancy outfits you asked us to wear,”.<br/>“Seriously guys,” she says, cutting off Suki as she turns back towards the rest of the table, “I don’t know what you were expecting. It's my birthday. This is my party. Why on earth would I foot the bill?”.<br/>“That’s kind of how birthday parties work,” says Sokka as he wrings his hands with the napkin Katara had got him to put in his lap during dinner.<br/>“Well that’s stupid why should I pay for an oppurtunity for you guys to celebrate me? If anything you should be paying ME for ME to even grace you with my presence. It’s my birthday, my special day, I don’t see why I should be expected to be the one to pay for everything. That’s just weird”<br/>“Maybe… maybe we can, probably, help cover part of it,” offers Aang.<br/>“But,” says Toph “that really wouldn’t make me have a happy birthday now would it, and isn’t that what this is all about,”.  She pushes her chair back from the table and stands up. The waiter from earlier appears next to her.<br/>“Toph, we’re sorry but really,” says Katara and eying the waiter warily she doesn’t finish saying whatever she was going to say and instead chooses to smile nervously as her gaze flickers from between the waiter to the still unpaid check on the table.<br/>“Well, good luck I guess” she says before spinning on her heels and allowing herself to be led out by the waiter. When they’re a few tables away she stops, turns to face them one last time, and hisses out, “And I’d figure something out fast if I were you, which I am not,” before shrugging and leaving for good.<br/>Then Toph’s gone and the bill is still sitting there unpaid.<br/>A few minutes later, during which everyone just stares in silent horror at the check, the waiter returns without Toph and clasps his hands in front of him, waiting.<br/>“Another round of coffee for the table, please,” says Ty Lee and the waiter heads off to the kitchen, leaving them alone.<br/>“Ty Lee we need to stop ordering things and making the bill even bigger,” hisses Katara “we already can’t afford it. OMS, what are we going to do,” she slumps down in her chair and puts her head in her hands.<br/>Jin pulls out her phone “Maybe we can call someone to come help,”.<br/>Sokka shakes his head and sighs, “The only person we know with that kind of money is Toph. She’s gone, and I doubt she’s coming back to foot the bill,”.<br/>Suki turns in her chair to look down the table, “Mai, can you cover it? The rest of us might be able to help repay it later,”.<br/>Mai shakes her head no and everyone deflates a little bit, “My parents never gave me access to the supposed family fortune as a child, and I still don’t have access to it. Especially now that I am an adult that’s off on my own and even more so after I ran the numbers one night myself and learned that my parents are constantly fighting bankruptcy as they blow through all their money in different desperate attempts to maintain appearances,”. Everyone slumps in their chairs.<br/>Suki turns toward the girl next to her, “Ty Lee?”.<br/>Ty Lee shakes her head, “We’re not rich, my parents just worked a lot and anyways with such a big family they’ve budgeted everything out exactly for like the next twenty years and I can’t just ask them for THAT much money,”. Everyone slumps even further.<br/>Sokka whispers to Zuko next to him, “You got any hidden money?”.<br/>Zuko side eyes, “Yeah, I am just working a campus job and taking thousands of dollars out in loans for fun,”.<br/>“Maybe we can put it in Ozai’s tab?” whispers back Sokka.<br/>“I am not sure he even has a tab at this place and anyways the one time I suggested the company spend more on worker’s safety to prevent accidental deaths I got half my face burned off. I don’t think he’d take kindly to me charging this bill to him or the company, and I never had access to the family money anyways, that was Azula,”.<br/>“Well shit,” breaths out Sokka.<br/> “Well, shit indeed,”<br/>Sokka sighs and slouches down into his chair, “Those were all our rich friends, now what?”.<br/>“I have no fucking clue,”<br/>A few minutes pass in silence and then their coffee is bought out and everyone starts taking very small slow sips of it as they continue to sit there and think. <br/>Eventually Katara, Aang, and Ty Lee shake off their initial shock and that end of table starts trying to brainstorm which friends might have money and who they can call for help. The only problem they run into is that everyone they know is broke AF. Sometimes Mai and Jin offer suggestions, but so far nothing pans out.<br/>Zuko’s taking a sip of his coffee when Sokka’s who doing the same leans in closer to him but keeps his gaze locked downwards on the table in front of them. He whispers out the side of his mouth, “Act normal like you’re freaking out over how to pay the bill,”.<br/>Zuko sighs and decides he’ll play along and continue with the whispering,  “I don’t have to act,”.<br/>Sokka snorts, “I may have a plan,”.<br/>“I want in,”, both boy’s heads jerk up so they can look across the table at Suki whose head is bent down inspecting her own coffee cup.<br/>Sokka’s eyes go wide before he forces them to return to normal, “Fine, but give me a second to rework it,” he hisses to them. Suki hums. And Zuko nods. A minute or two passes as they continue to sip at their coffee. Zuko can hear more angry hisses coming from the other side of the table but can’t quite make out what they’re saying but judging from Katara’s hand gestures, it isn’t looking good for them.<br/>Finally, Sokka looks back down at his cup and whispers to Suki, “Take that ring with the large emerald off your finger and give it to Zuko,”.<br/>Zuko watches as she fidgets with the ring, pausing only once to take a sip of her coffee and as she brings the cup back down to the table Zuko notices the ring now sitting in between them on the table. Zuko slides a hand out and slips it off the table and into his jacket without anyone else at the table noticing, they're too busy trying to text and call people to notice much of anything right now.<br/>“That thing isn’t worth enough to cover the bill,” whispers Zuko.<br/>“I know,” cuts off Sokka, “Zuko when the waiter comes back you’re going to order the cheapest dessert on the menu for Suki and when it gets here you’re going to propose to her, just make it up as you go but be as loud as possible”.<br/>“Sokka-” tries Zuko.<br/>“Trust me. Suki you’re going to reject him very loudly because he’s cheating on you with your good friend Sokka. Then you’ll storm out and we’ll all follow,”<br/>Zuko bobs his head slightly in agreement. Suki hums her’s and when the sound draws the attention of Ty Lee, who pauses her talk with Katara to quickly look next to her at Suki, she clears her throat, “That’s good….coffee,” she says.<br/>Zuko nods in agreement, “It’s got some strange unusual notes to it but somehow it manages to work,”.<br/>“Yep, it was a good idea to order coffee,” affirms Sokka. <br/>“Yes, the coffee was a good idea,” agrees Zuko and Suki. Ty Lee bobs her head in agreement as she sips at her own cup of coffee that looks to be more milk and sugar than coffee before returning her attention to Katara who’s saying something about someone named Ham or Hanh or something like that.<br/>When the waiter stops by to check on them again Zuko waves him over, “Can I have a single sugar cookie please,”.<br/>After the waiter nods and leaves Katara whirls on him and hisses, “Zuko, what are you doing stop? Ordering shit!”.<br/>Zuko throws up his hands in defense of himself, “I am……. I am hungry,”.<br/>“Katara,” says Suki turning toward her “it’s buying us time plus it’s the cheapest thing on the dessert menu,”.<br/>“But-”<br/>“We’re already in the hole,” cuts of Sokka gesturing around to the table filled with their friends “So, we might as well keep on digging,”.<br/> “No, we may as well not” she hisses out before taking a deep breath “But, at least we have more time. We’re trying to call people but everyone we know doesn’t have that kind of money and is already busy,”.<br/>Sokka nods, “Okay, good to know, keep up the good work” he says, giving her a thumbs up. Katara just rolls her eyes and turns back around to the other end of the table.<br/>A few minutes pass and then Sokka knocks Zuko’s leg and nods off to the side. The waiter is coming back with the sugar cookie. Zuko slides the ring out his pocket and when the dessert is placed down in front of him and the waiter leaves again, he slides it over in front of Suki who fakes surprise at the gesture.<br/>Zuko takes a breath to center himself and then rises from his chair and moves around the table to stand in front of Suki who’s staring up at him in shock.<br/>“Zuko,” hisses Katara “what are you doing?”.<br/>Zuko ignores her and focuses on the plan. He’s going to wing this. And he’s going to try to not mess this up. So before he can lose his nerve he taps into his inner hopeless romantic and tries to remember every single rom-com and online proposal video he’s ever seen. Okay, he’s ready.<br/>Zuko gets down on one knee in front of Suki and when he hears his friends gasp and sputter he presses forward and holds up the ring for Suki to see but also more importantly for all the surrounding tables to see.<br/>He knows everyone at their table must be panicking and confused and shocked and that Sokka’s faking the same reaction because they’re gasping even louder now. But luckily no one has said anything yet to distract him. They must be too shocked.<br/>“Suki,” starts Zuko but when only a few tables look over he clears his throat to try again. To draw the attention of the whole restaurant he practically yells, “SUKI KINS,” at the top of his lungs. <br/>And now that more tables have stopped eating and are watching he presses forward after taking a deep breath. “Suki, you are the complete and utter light of my life. My best friend, my favorite person, the one who catches me when I fall, the one who helps me through this crazy journey called life. The one who I can always depend on. There have been times when you were the only good thing in my bleak miserable existence. Your smile gave me the strength to go on, your laughter gave me hope when I had none. Your support gave me the courage to try and you were there to celebrate my triumphs and mourn my failures with me when I felt consumed with sorrow. You are more than everything to me. You are the reason for my very existence. So I humble myself to you in this restaurant tonight, in front of our best friends, in front of the family we’ve created together, and yeah, in front of a couple strangers too,” he pauses his speech to chuckle underneath his breath, “I want to know if you will let me be even a fraction of what you are to me to you. Suki kins, will you…. Will you marry me?” he finishes, and he stares up only at her face. He doesn't let himself look around the restaurant. All there is Suki’s face and the shocked expression on her face and her wobbling lip.<br/>Suki stands up from her chair and pauses. The whole restaurant is their audience now and they lean in with baited breath to hear her answer and everyone at their table is looking on at the “proposal” with mouths a gap in shock.<br/>“Zuko,” says Suki and her voice sounds like she’s fighting back big wet tears that are threatening to spill out and consume her vision. “I love you. I always have and I hate that I know I always will,” she pauses again and breaths, deeply, as if she needs to compose herself. Zuko thinks he can hear a few sniffles at the display from the surrounding tables. “I love you. I am in love with you and I think,” she chokes up. “I hope you at least love me, but” she raises a hand to her mouth as if that will stop her from sobbing. The whole restaurant is blatantly craning their necks to watch their performance. “But,” she continues “I know that you aren’t in love with me like I am in love with you because I know... because I know...I know that you’re fucking our best friend,”. She throws out her arm and points at their table of friends, “Sokka!”.<br/>Zuko whips his head to the side to look at Sokka who leaps up from his chair. He sends it crashing to the ground and it hitting the marble floor is the only sound in the restaurant besides a collective gasp. “Suki-” he tries.<br/>She takes a step back from Zuko.<br/>Zuko flings himself forward and down at her feet in front of her. On both knees and with both hands he clutches at her, “Suki, please, I-”.<br/>She pushes his hands away from her. Tears her eyes away from his face as she chokes up even more. He thinks he can even see a few actual tears in her eyes. Zuko pushes himself up off the floor and stands in front of Suki, hand outstretched to her, ring clutched in the fist of his other hand.<br/>Suki pauses then. She takes a second to look around the restaurant and the faces of their audience, letting an expression of horror and shame settle over her features for them to see. It’s almost as if she’s just now realizing that everyone was watching. She turns. She runs.<br/>“Suki, please,” yells Zuko, begging her to wait, or to come back, to say yes, or to listen to him as he takes chase after her through the restaurant as she makes her retreat.<br/>Zuko can hear Sokka yelling behind him as he follows them out of the restaurant and through the sea of horrified faces, “Suki, I can explain. I am sorry. Please-,”.<br/>Zuko catches the door Suki flung up that leads to the outside and continues following her out into the night air and Sokka does the same following him. <br/>Zuko’s out of breath but as he breaths in the cold spring air he laughs, “I can’t believe that actually worked,” he chokes out.<br/>“That was amazing you two,” congratulates Sokka beaming at them before his smile falters and he looks back behind them toward the now closed door that they just exited, “Wait, did no one else follow us out?”.<br/>Before Zuko or Suki can answer, from behind a rather tall potted plant the host, that had earlier escorted them to their table, steps out into the light casted from a nearby street light. “If you three will follow me please,” he says.<br/>Suki, Sokka, and Zuko share a look between them but the host is staring at them expectantly. Zuko grimaces, if no one else had followed them out then that means the rest of their friends, except for Toph who already left, are all still inside. And who knows how the restaurant is going to react to their little escape plan. Sokka and Suki must reach the same conclusion because they share and look and then they turn and follow the host.<br/>He leads them around the restaurant to a side door which he pulls open. Once back inside the restaurant he doesn’t take them back to the table and their friends. No, he takes them down a hallway, past offices, past the kitchen and to a closed door.<br/>He opens it to a darkly light room and gestures for them to enter. They do and he leaves, closing the door behind him. Zuko looks around the room and gasps, he can hear Suki and Sokka next to him doing the same.<br/>The wall across from them is essentially a large window. The room appears to be some sort of private dining room with a window that looks out into the restaurant, but most noteworthy is that the window looks out over the table the three of them had just ran from and where the rest of their friends are still sitting. The large black mirror behind their table must have been a two way mirror this entire time. <br/>Situated in front of the mirror/actually a window wall overlooking the table is a single chair turned away from them. Zuko continues looking around the room and is starting to try to come to terms with whatever this means when the chair spins around and sitting in it is one Toph Beifong.<br/>“So it was you three that ran for it first huh. I would’ve guessed Jin or Mai,”<br/>Zuko is gaping at her. He opens and closes his mouth again and again, but nothing comes out. He takes a deep breath and blinks, but she’s still there, the whole room is still there. He opens and closes his mouth as he blinks, the same result. He forces words out of his mouth after a minute, “What the fuck’s going on Toph?”.<br/>Toph laughs and spreads her hands in front of her, “The real party has finally begun,”.<br/>“The what?” asks Suki, fighting to overcome her own shock.<br/>Toph smiles at them, “The bill is already paid for, it was paid for before we even ordered and quite a few large tips for the staff too, I might add,”.<br/>They go back to gaping at her. Zuko thinks his brain might have stopped working because he had to have heard her wrong right. Maybe he hit his head on the way out. Maybe he hit his head and he’s actually still back in the apartment. He stares at Toph but every time he blinks and opens his eyes again, she’s still there. Blink. Still there. Blink. Still there.<br/>“But--- but… you said, and then you and then you left,” Zuko hears from someone who sounds like Sokka next to him. Toph cackles maniacally. Okay, maybe this is real. That sounds like Toph, but that would have to mean, wait, no. She wouldn’t, would she? She didn’t, did she?<br/>Then the person, he thinks, is next to him that sounds like Sokka is talking again. “Wait, so your idea of a birthday party was to throw a surprise murder mystery dinner party but without a murder, and with suprising everyone that it was even happening, and instead of murder it was a theft that we thought we were actually committing,”. He pauses to take a breath “Almost like a mystery grand larceny party and then what, you wait for us to try to run out on the bill as you sit back here and laugh,''.<br/>Toph cackles again and wipes at tears that are welling up in her eyes “And it’s the best birthday I’ve ever had so far. Great performance by the way. I always knew you really were a theater nerd, Sparky,”.<br/>Zuko takes a breath and decides fuck it, he guesses this his his life now. He just accepts it. But he’s still pissed that this happening, “This is so fucking weird and cruel and insane!” he yells at Toph.<br/>“I know, isn’t it great?” she gushes. <br/>Sokka’s pulling his hair at this point, “What if we did actually manage to pay for it, huh, what then?”.<br/>Toph just waves off his concerns with a flick of her hand, “The staff have been instructed to not accept payment of any kind from any of you,”.<br/>All three of them can only yell “Oh! My! Spirits!”. They stand there and stare at Toph, and the room, and the mirrors, and the table with their friends beyond the mirror.<br/>Toph claps her hands together and gestures off to a corner with a stack of chairs, “Pull up a chair if you like. I think Katara has finally figured out how to say words again,”. The three of them wordlessly pull up chairs, take a seat to Toph’s left and look out of the window at the table they had just left. <br/>From a set of speakers on a low table in front of Toph’s chair Katara’s voice fills the room, “I can’t- they just- how could they- I am going to-” she doesn’t manage to finish any of her statements.<br/>Suki turns from the window to stare at Toph, “Did you bug the tables?”.<br/>Toph just gives a noncommittal half shrug, “We needed audio, just visual is kind of useless here,”. They don’t answer and just go back to listening in and watching their friends. Zuko tears his gaze away from his friends, panicked and huddled forms over the table and shoots Sokka a look that he knows that can’t convey quite how shocked and hurt and confused he is. Sokka has a similar expression on his face next to him and shakes his head at him before inclining it to Toph, seemingly too shocked to fight whatever’s going on too.<br/>Over the speakers the sounds of the restaurant and the table filters in. Zuko listens to Jin’s voice as it covers the din of the establishment, “I am getting voicemail for all three of them each time I try to call them,”.<br/>Aang gasps before hanging his head in defeat, “They never turned their phones back on when we were trying to call for help,”.<br/>Katara inhales sharply, “They planned this. They planned this and left us here by ourselves,”.<br/>“I never would’ve thought they’d have the balls to do something like that,” Toph snorts at Mai’s quip.<br/>Jin sighs and takes a sip of her coffee before speaking, “Now everyone’s really watching us, what do we do?”.<br/>“I don’t know,” mumbles Katara as she collapses back into her chair. Aang tries to console her but she just pushes away his hand. Zuko’s heart feels tight at his friend's pain.<br/>Ty Lee must still be trying to be optimistic because she looks around the table at their distraught friends faces and says “Maybe they’ll come back with help,”.<br/>“Maybe,” says Aang, trying for a smile that really looks more like a grimace.<br/>“No,” snaps Katara, sitting up straight in her chair “They abandoned us here to rot. They left us hanging out to dry. They sold us out for an expensive steak. They…. they, urg!” she crosses her arms against her chest and fumes.<br/>Toph cackles, the sound fills the room but none of the people sitting at the table in front of them through the window react to the loud noise. The room they’re in must be sound proof.<br/>Sokka slumps down into his chair and hides his head in his hands. When Toph’s laughter stops and no one at the table says anything for a few minutes he speaks, it comes out mumbled from between his hands but Zuko can hear it fine, “This wasn’t the plan,” he laments. Toph goes back to her cackling and Sokka’s head remains in his hands. Zuko slides an arm around Sokka’s shoulders and hugs him. He also kicks at Toph which quiets her laughter, a bit.<br/>From over the speakers Aang’s voice fills the room, “We don’t know that”.<br/>“Then where are they?” barks Katara.“Why would they perform that skit if they were coming back. If they were they would’ve clued us in, told us, and then they would’ve left and got the money somehow, and their phones would be on, and they’d send us updates, and they’d walk back in through those doors, and we’d all celebrate and be happy and leave together. They’re not coming back,”.<br/>“They aren’t coming back,” confirms Mai. Zuko watches as his friends slump back down into their chairs and he grimaces. He really does feel bad and his chest feels tight and he knows his pain is only a fraction of what his friends must be feeling as they think they’ve been abandoned and are now alone as they struggle to pay an already paid bill.<br/>Zuko keeps his arm around Sokka’s shoulders, the other boy has at least removed his head from his hands but his expression is still one filled with pain. CRUNCH!!!! CRUNCH!!! Zuko jumps at the sound and when he looks over he finds Toph munching on some popcorn, where the fuck did she get popcorn, “Drama, drama, drama,” mumbles the shorter blind girl.<br/>Sokka groans and throws his hands up, “The plan was for Suki to storm out and Ty Lee to follow her, concerned, then Mai would follow her. We’d have Zuko run out after Suki and Jin follow him, and then for me to follow Suki and Zuko with Aang running after me and Katara running after him,”.<br/>Toph throws more popcorn into her mouth and crunches down on it, swallowing down the chewed up kernals, “That plan sounds stupid and complicated. You really overestimated everyone else at the table’s perception,”.<br/>“It was supposed to be an idiot proof plan,” snaps Sokka before he defates back down into Zuko’s arms, “but apparently it wasn't our dumbass friends proof,”. Zuko pulls closer to him so he can hug him. Sokka collapses against him completely and into the hug. He holds him close.<br/>Suki shakes her head, “We just sold it too much. They were too shocked to react on instinct”. Toph snorts.<br/>Sokka extracts himself from Zuko’s arms and moves to get up from his chair. Zuko thinks he’s going to put an end to this. He’s going to go get the others and to stop whatever the fuck this is.<br/>“Sit back down, Snozzles,” order Toph pointing a finger at Sokka “The night isn't over yet,”.<br/>Sokka remains standing for a few seconds, staring at Toph, she keeps her finger out pointing at him. After a few seconds he sits back and slouches in his chair and they go back to listening in to their friends' conversations.<br/>Ty Lee’s voice fills the room, “Well, we’ll think of something. We have to and we always manage to,”. Everyone at the table sighs but she presses forward, “Did Teo ever get back to you about what his dad said?”.<br/>Aang checks his phone, “No, I am still waiting for a response,”.<br/>“Well,” sighs Jin “I’ve given up with Toph. She isn’t answering either, and uncle’s phone is off so I can’t ask him for help in reaching Toph or Zuko,”.<br/>Katara inhales sharply and leans across the table toward Jin, with her furrowed brow and a slightly shaking finger extended out pointing at Jin, it doesn’t take an expert to guess that she’s angry, “Don’t. Mention. Those. Names. At. This. Table. Again,”. Jin nods meckly.<br/>Zuko nudges Toph with his elbow to pull her attention away from the speakers, “Did uncle know about this?” he asks.<br/>Toph grins up at him, “Not exactly but I strongly hinted that he should go to bed and turn off his phone earlier than usual tonight and that no it’s nothing bad or dangerous or stupid or illegal just some youthful fun,”.<br/>“This isn’t youthful fun,” sputters Sokka “And you, like, just gave a whole speech about not being a child anymore and how you're nineteen and mature and an adult”.<br/>Toph rolls her eyes. “I am not a child,” she argues, crossing her arms in front of her chest “my sense of humor has matured past fart and burp jokes,”.<br/>“This is sadistic. Fart and burp jokes are so much better than this crap,” yells Suki.<br/>“But I’ve done all that stuff,” she whines “and I haven’t stopped those jokes, I’ve just developed some new ones,”.<br/>Zuko glares at Toph, “This feels like totrure and it also feels kind of illegal,”.<br/>Toph must sense his glare because she punches him in the arm, “No, it’s perfect. I am teaching you all how to con and scam in a real life environment. This is teaching you valuable life skills,” she argues. “Plus it’s fun for me. And it’s not illegal,” she glares back at them, “It’s my birthday party, which I paid for, so shut up and let me listen. I can’t hear over all your crying,”. They sigh but stop talking and all go back to listening.<br/>Mai’s voice crackles over the speaker, “Maybe we can give them Toph’s address and let them deal with this,”.<br/>“I don’t think that’s how restaurants work,” says Ty Lee shaking her head.<br/>“Uh,” Jin waves her hand to get everyone’s attention before continuing “I am pretty sure that’s not how they work but I am willing to try it anyways,”.<br/>Katara sighs and massages her temples, “That’s definitely not how they work and they are dealing with this. They’re keeping us here to foot the bill,”.<br/>Jin lowers her hand and scoots around her chair before speaking again, “Well, we need to think of something and we need to think of it fast...I have to pee,”.<br/>“I told you to go before we left,”<br/>“I didn’t have to go then Katara. Plus, I’ve drinken like three cups of water and so much coffee and-,” <br/>“HOLD IT!” hisses Katara.<br/>“I’ve been trying to do that for the past hour already,” says Jin as she starts wiggling around in her chair.<br/>Ty Lee reaches out a hand across Mai toward a squirming Jin “Are you okay?” she asks, concern lacing her voice.<br/>“No, I really have to pee,” is whined back in response. Her dancing intensifies and her face looks pained. <br/>“HOLD. IT.”<br/>She wiggles to the left. Then to the right. She twists in her seat. Her skirt is getting all bunched up and twisted. “I am trying” cries Jin.<br/>A few minutes pass and Jin’s dancing more and more. The waiter from earlier returns to the table when he clears his throat to make his presence known all while side eyeing the check Jin launches out of her chair and grabs onto his arm, “Can you show me where the bathroom is, please?” she asks. And she’s taken to shuffling around, hopping from foot to foot.<br/>The waiter pauses to look at her dancing before nodding and leading her away from the table.<br/>Aang who’d been texting through Jin’s piss crisis looks up from his phone and turns to look at Katara, “Teo says his dad can’t help us,”.<br/>Katara groans, “OMS, we are going to go to prison over this bullshit,”. Toph cackles and claps her hands together like one of those evil laughing monkey dolls that clap those cymbals together when you pull a string that’s coming out of their asses.<br/>Aang scoots closer to Katara “We aren’t going to go to prison over this,”.<br/>“If anything,” cuts in Mai “we go to the police station, spend the night in jail, and are then brought up on charges in court in the morning, and at that point we can make a deal with the prosecutor's office. They aren’t going to want to waste tax dollars on bringing this to trial. Most likely we get ordered to pay the restaurant, plus a fine, and maybe community service,”.<br/>Zuko isn’t surprised when this news doesn’t have a calming effect on Katara “OMS, that would go on our permanent records!” she cries.<br/>“Actually it would go on our criminal records,” points out Ty Lee.<br/> “Well technically those are permanent, so” points out Aang.<br/> Ty Lee bobs her head and concedes “Okay, yeah, that’s fair,”.<br/>“OMS,” groans Katara and she slumps over the table, throwing her arms over her head to hide from the world.<br/>She lays there, strown across the table as Aang tries to comfort her for a few minutes before she shoots back up and knocks Aang’s hand up off her back. “Wait, where’s Jin?” she demands as she looks around the restaurant. Everyone pauses to look around the room.“Did she abandon us too?”. There’s still no sight of her. “I’ll kill her myself,”.<br/>“Wait,” says Ty Lee, her face blooming into a smile “No, there she is by the bathrooms,” she points and stands up from the table. She bounces up and down as she waves wildly at where Zuko assumes the bathrooms are, “Wait.. what wait,” she slows her bouncing and waving “Jin…. JIN! She’s going the wrong way. Why is she going that way, we’re over here. She’s... she’s heading to the exit. What? Jin she-”<br/>“Don’t mention her name either,” barks out Katara before launching across the table and dragging Ty Lee back down into her seat and away from the other restaurant’s patrons’ stares.<br/>“And they’re down to four,” Toph cackles again and again and again.<br/>Eventually, the door opens and in steps Jin with a terrified expression on her face that lessens when she spots them. Looking around the room confused she hurries over to them, “OMS, what’s happening?”.<br/>Toph clears her throat and splays her hands in front of her again, “Welcome to the real birthday party,”.<br/>“The real birthday party?”<br/>“Yes, your phone please,” says Toph pointedly as she sticks out her hand and motions for Jin to hand it over already.<br/>Dumbfounded Jin hands over her phone. Just as it starts to blare out her ringtone, Toph finishes turning it off completely.<br/>“What’s going on?”<br/>When it’s clear no one else is going to answer Suki lets out a small breath and shakes her head, “Toph here has been hiding in this backroom listening in on us and our conversations as we struggled to figure out how to pay a bill she’s already secretly paid for,”.<br/>“WHAT THE FUCK!!!”<br/>Sokka nods,“Yeah, that’s the general consensus right now,”.<br/>“The fucking gremlin has turned sadistic,” says Zuko jabbing a thumb in Toph’s direction.<br/>Jin collapses into a nearby chair and puts her head in her hands as she mumbles what the fuck over and over again. The speakers crackle and Katara’s voice fills the room, “No one else is leaving this table for any reason,”.<br/>….<br/>They hear a sigh, “Am I understood or do I have to make myself understood?”. A chorus of confirmations of understanding rings out from the table. “Good.”<br/>The door opens again and the waiter enters with a platter of cookies and pretzels, more popcorn, and some movie theater style boxes of candy<br/>“Thank you, Shu,” says Toph snatching up the fresh bowl of popcorn for herself<br/>Zuko and Sokka take the box of twizzlers to share from the platter with small nods of thanks to the waiter as they continue to try to process everything. Maybe they can stress eat their problems away. Drown it all out in twizzlers. (It doesn’t look like it’s working, Toph’s still there)<br/>“Maybe, maybe we can talk to the restaurant about the bill,” says Aang over the speakers.<br/>Mai sighs and stops picking at her nails, “You can’t negotiate the price of food you’ve already eaten,” she points out.<br/>Aang whirls in his chair to face her “WELL I DON’T SEE YOU COMING UP WITH ANY IDEAS!” he yells. Mai shrugs and flicks off a swatch of her black nail polish.<br/>Ty Lee holds her palms, “Maybe we can work out some sort of deal with them and work off our debt,” she suggests. Aang nods his head and mumbles an apology to Mai before sinking back down into his chair.<br/>“This is humiliating,” can be heard from behind the hands Katara’s taken to hiding behind.<br/>Reaching across the table to do so Ty Lee takes Katara’s hands in her own and pulls them away from her face, “I think we have to try to stay positive right now,” she reassures, smiling down at Katara.<br/>“I will positively kill everyone at this table,” she responds, wrenching her hands away and settling them clasped in her lap.<br/>Mai shrugs, “We wouldn’t have to worry about paying the bill then,”. Ty Lee nods and sits down again.<br/>Aang gasps, “We aren’t going to be killing anyone and it’s disrespectful to joke about such a thing,”.<br/>“I wasn’t joking,” states Katara, side eyeing him. Props to Aang, thinks Zuko, he doesn’t buck under the weight of Katara’s glare. He’s a stronger man than many give him credit for.<br/>Aang, unfazed by the threat of death, presses onward, “We need to calm down and try to think of a non-violent solution that will be amicable for the restaurant, us, and our friends,”.<br/>Katara inhales sharply, “Fuck those people. They aren’t our friends anymore. They abandoned us, they betrayed us and I am going to find them and I am going to destroy them!”.<br/>Zuko flinches and figures everyone else in the back room did too. He leans down to whisper to Toph, “I don’t think you accounted for Katara’s temper when you were planning this scam,”.<br/>“It makes it even more exciting this way,”  she says nudging his arm with her fist.<br/>“She’s going to murder us all,” announces Jin and she flops down further into her chair, “But hey, maybe she’ll be so distracted killing you four that she’ll forget about me,”. At that she perks up and Zuko tries to not take offense to his death being used as a distraction for her to escape, but hey at least his story will live on in the tell all book she’s sure to publish five years down the line.<br/>Sokka shakes his head, “Katara won’t kill us,”.<br/>“She might,” says Suki.<br/>“Yeah, it sounds like that vein on her forehead is popping out,” agrees Toph.<br/>Zuko looks out through the window to tha table and takes a good long look at Katara, squinting his eyes to get a better look, “Fuck, it is,” he tells Toph.<br/>“Good,” huffs Jin, crossing her arms against her chest “She’s so going to kill you all and then I can just slip out the back,”.<br/>“Yeah you’re really good at that, bathroom girl” chuckles Toph.<br/>“But she wouldn’t kill kill us, right? Just like yell a bit. It’s Katara, my sister, our friend” reasons Sokka<br/>Jin gives him a look, “You three made the bill even bigger by ordering dessert than faked a very public proposal that ended in rejection and had the whole restaurant watching us before running away without telling anyone else about the plan,”.<br/>Sokka glares at her, “The plan was to inspire everyone else to follow suit and run!” he yells. “I couldn’t say it outright or Katara wouldn’t have ever agreed to it so I decided to lead by example and hope you were all so wooed by our performance you’d be blinded with emotion and take flight after us. And anyways you guys could’ve chosen to follow us out at any time but didn’t, that’s on you,” he finishes.<br/>Jin narrows her eyes, “You could’ve at least told us beforehand,”.<br/>“It was more of an improv type of thing,” interejects Suki cutting off Sokka from arguing about the validity of his plan anymore and Zuko nods his head in agreement with her statement.<br/>“Yeah, Suki was only added to the plan because she overheard Sokka whispering to me about it,”<br/>Sokka huffs, “No she over heard YOU whispering,”.<br/> “Actually,” she says raising a finger “I overheard both of you whispering,”.<br/>Toph snorts, “Idiots,” she shakes her head at her friend's antics “but, it makes for great entertainment,”.<br/>“How could you say that?” yells Zuko throwing his hands up into the air and nearly spilling his twizzlers in the process “You do realize this isn’t a reality show right, this is our friends lives you’re talking about,”.<br/>“Of course I do. First off,” she says, preparing to tick off her points on her fingers “there are a lot less commercials. Secondly, the bill is already paid for. Thirdly, all the staff have been generously tipped. Fourthly, nothing bad is happening. All it is is some harmless drama,”.<br/>Sokka whirls away from the window to face Toph and hisses “What about the emotional trauma?”.<br/>Toph waves him off, “There’s four types of funny and fun things in life: something that is funny when it happens and in the future, something funny in the moment but not in the future, something not funny in the moment and not in the future, and something not funny at the moment but funny in the future. In like a week you guys are going to look back at this and laugh,”<br/>“No, this isn’t funny and it’s not going to be funny EVER,” argues Sokka.<br/>“It’s pretty funny to me,” is what he gets in response to his protest to what might be categorized as an emotionally traumatic event engineered by a trusted friend. “So far we’ve had a fake proposal that revealed an illicit gay affair and Jin straight up sprinting for it, this is comedy gold. You couldn’t write this shit, that’s how good it is,”.<br/>Zuko starts hysterically laughing. It’s all he can do. He laughs. And laughs. Because, seriously WTF. What the Fuck. What The Fuck. He laughs. It started as chuckles. And now he cackles.And keeps laughing. There are tears welling up in his eyes and everyone’s looking at him like he’s crazy. OMS, their expressions are just really funny all of a sudden. He laughs. His laughter folds him in half and that is hilarious because WTF. Jin starts giggling right along with him.  Which is so funny. Everyone must think they’ve lost it and are concerned and are watching them. Spirits, how can they not be laughing right now. Zuko laughs and stops clutching his stomach to gesture wildly around the room. He’s waving his arm to the windows that look like mirrors from the other side, to the speakers in front of them, to their friends beyond, and he laughs. Then Suki dissolves into a heap of laughter and Sokka follows suit soon after.<br/>Between laughs Zuko manages to catch his breath to scream out into the laughter filled room, “WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!”. He isn’t sure how long they laugh for but eventually it fades and they’re left with stupid grins plastered onto their faces and only an occasionally giggle from the group.<br/>“Shhh,” shhs Toph “Mai’s talking again,”.<br/>“They’re starting to get impatient,”<br/>“Should we order more coffee?” asks Aang, downing the rest of the cup in front of him contents.<br/>“No, we need to stop spending money we don’t have,” urges Katara.<br/> “I think we should try talking to someone-”<br/>“No, Ty Lee, they can’t know we can’t pay, they'll call the cops on us then. If anyone asks, we're...we’re waiting for those,” spits out Katara “three to hash out their little disagreement,”.<br/>“But we don’t have to try to talk to the staff,” continues Ty Lee “All the other patrons here can afford this place so maybe if  we ask one of them to field us the money we can repay them at a later date,”.<br/>Aang bobs his head, “That could just work,”.<br/>Ty Lee gathers up her purse and makes to stand up from the table, “Mai and I can go to the bar and try to find someone willing to help us pay,”<br/>“No,”  says Katara, narrowing her eyes at Ty Lee.<br/>Ty Lee just sighs, “Mai and I grew up around the filthy rich. We can tell who actually has money and who’s faking it, we should be the ones to go. This is our best bet. If we do nothing they’re just going to call the cops”.<br/>“We all agreed not to leave this table,” pushes Katara.<br/>“We’re going to end up leaving this table eventually,” hisses Ty Lee “The restaurant closes soon, and we still don’t have the money. So we leave the table to get the money now or we leave against our own accords”. That knocks Katara back and she nods numbly, slumping in her chair.<br/>Ty Lee pushes back from the table and stands up.<br/>“Wait,” says Katara holding up a hand to stop Mai from joining Ty Lee in standing “We already lost the others, both of you can’t go... maybe no one should go,”.<br/>Ty Lee gestures to Mai who drops her own purse back down onto the table and resettles in her seat, “How about I go and take Aang with me?” she suggests to Katara.<br/>Katara looks between Aang and Ty Lee, she looks between Mai and Ty Lee, and she looks around the rest of the restaurant. “Fine,”<br/>Aang pushes back from the table and stands. He follows after Ty Lee and the two of them make their way across the restaurant to the bar area.<br/>“And the drama intensifies,” says Toph punctuating it with a crunch from a popcorn kernel she threw into her mouth.<br/>Sokka mumbles, “Fuck, this IS oddly exciting,”.<br/>“I know, right?” she throws another kernel into her mouth before continuing “Now, what do we have visually speaking, I didn’t bug the bar area and the bugs for your guys clothes didn’t come in in time,”.<br/>“You were going to bug our clothes!” screams Suki<br/>Toph holds up a finger, “But I didn’t,”.<br/>Zuko sputters, “Just because you couldn’t,”.<br/>Topg shrugs, “The visual?”<br/>Zuko sighs, “Ty Lee and Aang are walking over to the bar. Ty Lee’s taking a seat at the end near some gentlemen. They have good, clean, suits,very expensive and well made. They have wealth, real wealth and aren’t new money. But they’re young and have been drinking so they may just be stupid enough to accept Ty Lee’s deal especially if they think they’re going to get some, but Aang’s there and Ty Lee can take care of herself so she’ll be fine if anything happens,”.<br/>Toph nods, “Good,”.<br/>“They’ve ordered drinks and are talking,” he describes “The men are laughing and Ty Lee’s laughing with them. Aang’s just standing there. The men are still laughing and have gotten up from the bar and...and they left her and Aang there and I don’t think they’re going to pay for the table,”.<br/>Toph gasps and shovels more popcorn in her mouth.<br/>“Aang and Ty Lee are looking around the bar, Ty Lee’s shaking her head. They’re walking back towards the table. Aang’s leading the way back to the table and he’s shaking his head No to Katara,”<br/>Katara clenches a fist and pounds it into her palm, “SHIT!”.<br/>“They’re making their way back to the table, wait,” details Zuko “hold on a second. Ty Lee’s looking around the restaurant,”.<br/>“Is she going to ask someone else?” asks Toph.<br/>“I don’t know I can’t read minds. Aang’s still walking back to the table, Ty Lee’s still following but she’s slowed her pace and is still looking around the room. Fuck!”<br/>“TY LEE!” screams Katara.<br/>“Ty Lee’s full on running,” breaths out Zuko, transfixed at the scene playing out in the restaurant in front of them “She just flipped over a table, and slid under the grand piano, and she’s weaving in and out of tables. Fuck, that was a high jump,”.<br/>“I’ll be back!!!!” screams out Ty Lee as she full on sprints out of the restaurant.<br/>“She’s run out of the restaurant. She made a run for it and she made it, she’s out,” he laughs. Fuck, this really is weirdly entertaining.<br/>Toph cackles, “DRAMA!”.<br/>Suki shakes her head, “I never would’ve guessed Ty Lee would’ve ran for it,”.<br/>Sokka pauses mid chew of the last twizzler to nod his head, “I would’ve had money on Mai next,”.<br/>“Damn it this really is exciting,” agrees Jin.<br/>Katara’s fuming as Aang takes his seat at the table again, “That-that-that little urg!!!!”<br/>“That took balls,” says Mai appreciatively, “and at this point I think they definitely know we can’t pay,”.<br/>The door to the back room opens and in walks Ty Lee escorted by Shu the waiter. Toph sticks out her hand, “Phone,”. Ty Lee stares at the semicircle of people around the window overlooking their table and Toph’s overstretched hand. She hands over her phone. Shu leaves and closes the door behind him.<br/>Once he’s gone Ty Lee looks around again and then starts speaking, “What’s going on? I only left to go find the money, I swear. I was going to come back, honest. It’s just Katara’s aura was getting really tense and we needed the money so I was trying to help calm her down and the only way to do that would be to get the money. I was going to come back,”.<br/>Toph finishes turning off her phone and hands it back wordlessly. Zuko coughs and elbows her in the ribs, gesturing to Ty Lee who’s still standing and looking at them confused.<br/>Toph sighs and splays her hands “Welcome to the real birthday party,”.<br/>“Real birthday party?”<br/>Toph nods, “The bill and tips have already been paid for, they were before anyone even ordered,”.<br/>Ty Lee collapses down into a nearby chair and gasps, “So we’ve been panicking for over the past hour even though the bill is paid for so you can sit back here and laugh at us,”.<br/>Toph scuffs, “Well when you say it like that it sounds bad,”<br/>“No matter how you say it it sounds bad because it is bad,” says Zuko, shaking his head, “This shit is insane,”.<br/>“And yet so entertaining,”<br/>“Yeah, but it’s cruel,” points out Jin.<br/>“I am teaching you life skills,” argues Toph “And in ten years you all are going to look back this and laugh,”<br/>“This isn’t very funny,” pipes up Ty Lee from her seat.<br/>Toph throws her hands up, “But you’re in second place,”.<br/>Ty Lee perks up and tilts her head at that, “Second place?”.<br/>“Yeah, I heard you did a flip over a table and slid under the piano before essentially announcing to the whole restaurant that you guys couldn’t pay,”<br/>“Well, um, but second place, really?” she asks again, twirling a piece of hair and smiling.<br/>Toph shrugs and jabs a finger to her left, “Those three faked a proposal and then a gay afair so they’re in first place, little miss I have to pee and then runs is in third,”.<br/>“I really did have to pee though,” mumbles Jin sinking down into her chair.<br/>Ty Lee shakes her head, “Katara’s so going to kill you guys,”.<br/>“Well,” says Sokka “you just joined the club,”.<br/>Ty Lee’s eyes go wide, “I promised I’d come back though,”.<br/>Toph, “Not happening, now would you like popcorn or pretzels, I think we’re out of twizzlers,”<br/>Ty Lee shrugs and sticks out a hand expectantly, “Pretzels, please,”. Toph hands over a bag of pretzels which she accepts and starts snacking on.<br/>The speakers pick up more of their friends’ conversation, “Maybe she’ll come back,” says Aang.<br/>“And maybe I’ll shove my foot so far up her ass I’ll knock out her teeth,” bites out Katara. Ty Lee flinches.<br/>“What did those douches say?” asks Mai.<br/>Aang grimaces but starts telling them about what happened at the bar anyways, “Well, it was mainly Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, look at those little peasants thinking they can hang with the big dogs, ha ha ha ha, we won’t tell our friend the owner on you but they look forward to watching us clean their dishes and wipe their behinds because this place now owns our…..butts, and than more ha ha ha has after that,”.<br/>Katara groans and slams back the drink Aang brought back with him from the bar, “Blugh,” she sputters and wipes at her mouth “that’s just Pepsi,”.<br/>Aang holds up a palm, “Please, calm down Katara I am nineteen,”.<br/>“The legal drinking age is eighteen,” points out Mai.<br/>“Yeah,” snaps Aang “So I can drink pepsi if I want and I want to. I know it’s bad and an awful habit to get into but I am really stressed out here,” he cradles the now empty soda glass in his hands.<br/>Toph cackles, “OMS, twinkle toes thinks pepsi is like equal to booze. This is amazing,”. Zuko can’t help it, he giggles and everyone else in the room laughs with him.<br/>Sokka wipes at some tears in his eyes, “You’ve driven Aang to drinking,”.<br/>Toph waves him off  “It’s okay Sweetness has taken care of that,”. They fall into giggles again as the speakers pick up more of their friends’ conversation<br/>Mai sighs and throws her phone down onto the table “Ty Lee isn’t answering her phone either now,”.<br/>“Don’t….don’t….don’t” chokes out Katara between deep breaths “mention that name at this table again,”.<br/>“Well, she who will not be named number six isn’t answering my calls or my texts,” retorts Mai glaring across the table at Katara.<br/>Ty Lee gasps, “That’s why you took my phone,”.<br/>Toph shrugs, “Maybe,”<br/>Looking out the window into the restaurant Zuko watches as Shu, their waiter from earlier and Toph’s latest lackey, approaches Katara, Mai, and Aang, who are all still seated at their party’s table.<br/>Zuko nudges Toph, “Shu is back,”.<br/>“Ooo drama,” she claps her hands together giddy. And yeah, she is getting way too much enjoyment out of this. “That man is really earning that tip,”.<br/>At the table Shu coughs to clear his throat and looks one by one at everyone’s faces. Katara looks stuck between shitting her pants and murder, Aang on the other hand looks like he’s going to have a heart attack, while Mai, well she looks like Mai, unbothered by everything. <br/>“Everyone’s, almost everyone’s,” he corrects “looking around panicked,”.<br/>“Greetings and salutations my good man,” says Aang, plastering a grin across his face as he pushes back and stands up from the table,”<br/>“Okay, Aang’s gotten up from the table. Katara’s gripping onto his arm to stop him but Aang is walking away from the table with Shu,”<br/>Toph shakes her head, “I should’ve bugged Shu,”.<br/>Zuko snorts, “Aang’s talking with his hands making a lot of gestures and doing a lot of facial expressions. Okay, now they’re walking back and Aang’s sitting down and Shu has walked away,”<br/>Aang leans across the table and explains the situation to Mai and Katara, and unbeknownst to him everyone in the back room, “He’s going to get us a round of tea from the back, on the house,” he adds. Katara breaths out a sigh of relief.<br/>The door to the back room opens and they jump. Shu walks in through the open door and bows his head to them.<br/>“Lady Beifong,” starts Shu “The young bald gentleman in the beige suit pulled me aside and attempted to explain the circumstances of why exactly the three of them are still dining with us. He explained that the three guests that stormed out after the proposal are talking through their issues. That it is merely a lover’s quarrel and that love is a complicated emotion that rarely has a single simple solution. He talked about love and the complications that can arise in any relationship at great length. Then he explained how Ms. Jin, who I escorted to the bathroom, had left to help mediate the quarrel and that Ms. Ty Lee followed later to help her, and how all five members of the party that had rapidly departed are expected back shortly. Everyone is expected to return and because of this the three remaining party members are waiting for the return of the rest of the table before they pay and depart for the evening,”.<br/>Toph nods, “Excellent work, Shu”.<br/>“Thank you, Lady Beifong,” he bows his head and then turns and leaves the back room.<br/>“Katara’s so going to kill all of us,” says Suki. She says it resolutely, as if she’s been mulling it over for a while now and has come to that unfortunate conclusion multiple times.<br/>“Probably,” agress everyone.<br/>“Well, she can’t kill me,” says Toph, as if that’s going to cheer them up. They’re going to die, but it’s okay she’ll still live. “It’s my party,”.<br/>Sokka snickers at her assertion, “One time she yelled at me because she claimed I ruined my own surprise party and then pushed me in a pool,”.<br/>“Congrats Toph,”says Zuko, clapping her on the back “You’ve made it 19 years before ending up being killed by Katara along with the rest of us,”. Toph pushes his hand off his back and he laughs. He can die happy, knowing that this is all Toph’s fault and Katara will kill her too.<br/>“Okay,” starts Suki drawing everyone’s attention to her “But she pushed you into that pool because you found out she was planning the party. And then you proceeded to make it as difficult as possible for her to plan: you refused to leave the house, you kept popping into her room randomly, you constantly tried to hang out with her and then acted hurt if she said no, and you would eat all the snacks she bought for it,” at this point Sokka most be remembering this incident more clearly because he’s dropped his gaze to look down at his lap. But Suki continues, “And then she finally managed to plan it and it was the day off, everyone jumped out and yelled surprise, but instead of acting surprised you whipped out a cake you bought for yourself and it was decorated with a blown up picture of Katara in the garage blowing up the balloons. So, yeah, she pushed into the pool,”<br/>Sokka tries to come to his defense and holds a finger to stop Suki from continuing with the story, “Still, it was my birthday and she pushed me in the pool. That wasn’t very cool”. Suki pinches his arm.<br/>Toph, who was silent as if considering this new information, speaks up “It’s not like there are any pools around here so we’re good,”.<br/>“There’s a lobster tank,” supplies Jin helpfully.<br/>Ty Lee snaps her fingers at the reminder “Oh yeah, I jumped over that as I was running and they all snapped at me,”.<br/>Suki giggles “Well, at least she can’t push us all in the lobster tank,”.<br/>Sokka, who’s still rubbing at the spot where Suki pinched him, grimaces “But she can and will try though,”.<br/>“I don’t want to get pushed in a lobster tank on my birthday,” grumbles Toph.<br/>“Oh no, it’s fine,” ressures Zuko “See, it’s just one of those things that won’t be funny in the moment but really funny in the future, give it like a week”. Everyone else laughs but Toph punches him. It was totally worth it though, thinks Zuko.<br/>Shu approaches the table where Aang, Mai, and Katara are still sitting with tea cups and a teapot. He delivers it to them before backing away and retreating to wherever it is that waiters go.<br/>Aang takes a tentative sip from his tea cup “Not as good as uncle’s hahaha,”. Katara sips at her own tea and grunts her agreement. Mai doesn’t answer either and chooses to instead dump all the sugar packets that Shu brought out for them into her pocket. Aang just takes another sip from his tea cup.<br/>A few more minutes of nothingness pass by uneventfully. Then Aang’s looking around the room. His gaze is shifting from table to table, from patron to patron. He’s darting as head this way and that. It’s like he’s looking for something. Katara’s staring down into her tea cup, stirring it dejectedly and doesn’t notice the odd behavior. Mai’s looking down at her phone, presumably texting people, and doesn’t seem to notice either.<br/>Sokka must have noticed it to though because he asks, “What’s Aang doing?”<br/>Toph elbows Zuko in the ribs, “What’s going on?”.<br/>He sighs, “I don’t know he’s just looking around a lot and acting all skittish,”.<br/>“What, is Twinkle Toes going to run for it?”<br/>Zuko’s going to respond but he’s cut off by the speakers playing the thud of Katara slamming her hands down on the table, “I can’t believe they’d-”<br/>“Aaaaaa!!!!” screams Aang cutting her off.<br/>Zuko whinces “Aang just spilled his tea all over his pants,”.<br/>“Oh my Tui and La, are you okay Aang?” asks Katara, gathering up all the napkins on the table and tossing them in front of him on the table as she searches frantically for more.<br/>“I am..I am fine,” manages Aang and he grabs a napkin off the table to start dabbing at the stain growing across his beige suit “Just a little bit warm and wet now is all,” he keeps dabbing.<br/>Aang’s still trying to dab it away with napkins as Katara watches him and her bottom lip quivers. But after a few minutes everyone in the back room and the table can tell that the napkins are just pushing the liquid deeper into the fabric of his suit and making everything worse at this point.<br/>Aang looks down at his suit. He takes in the stain and the dripping napkin. He sighs and drops the napkin down onto the table , “Katara, I have to- I am going to-” she buries her head in her hands.“I am going to ask our waiter for more napkins. Everything is going to be okay,” he says patting her on the back. Aang pushes back from the table and stands. This time Katara doesn’t try to stop him. She just keeps her head in her hands, at least they don’t hear any sobs coming from her though.<br/>Zuko starts up his commentary on their friend’s movements around the restaurant for Toph again, “Aang’s left the table and he’s walking through the restaurant,”.<br/>“that sneaky little-” starts Sokka.<br/>“Yeah, the bathroom was my thing,” calls out Jin.<br/>“Aang’s not going to the bathroom,” Zuko rolls his eyes but refrains from pinching his nose bridge, that’s a completely different hallway and he doubts this place would have two different sets of bathrooms. “Or to find Shu for that matter,” he adds “Aang’s going down some hallway and I don’t know where to,” he says before Toph can ask him.<br/>Suki sighs, “We’ve completely lost audio and visuals on Aang,”.<br/>Toph shakes her head and grumbles “I totally should’ve bugged your clothes,”.<br/>Ty Lee gasps. She turns to look down at Toph, “You were going to bug our clothes?”.<br/>Toph just waves off the question. “Apparently they didn’t come in in time,” supplies Jin.<br/>“I can’t believe Aang just abandoned Katara like that,” says Sokka “I’ll kill him myself,”.<br/>“You abandoned her like that too,” points out Suki.<br/>Sokka sputters, “Yeah, well, that was a completely different thing,”.<br/>Toph snickers “And the plot thickens,”.<br/>Aang isn’t escorted immediately to the room like everyone else was. Zuko has no idea where he is or where he could’ve gone. Shit, did he actually manage to make it out of the restaurant and sneak past the staff outside? Did he escape? Seriously, Aang out of all of them, he was the one that might have just escaped. <br/>Still nothing a few minutes later, though Zuko thinks at one point that he can make out the sounds of a distant but very large crash. But still nothing. Minutes later, the door opens and in walks Aang and Shu.<br/>“Phone,” demands Toph and she makes grabby motions to Aang.<br/>He hands over his phone, stunned, “What’s going on? Are we going to jail?”.<br/>“Lady Beifong,” says Shu, cutting off Aang’s questioning “He was intercepted attempting to speak to the owner. He claims he wanted to speak to him to help secure your party positions at the restaurant inorder to work until the bill was paid for,”.<br/>“Thank you, Shu. Please bring us a round of Shirley Temples,”<br/>“Yes, Lady Beifong,” <br/>Sokka raises his hand, “Can I get some extra cherries, Shu?”.<br/>“Of course Mr. Snozzles,” he says, bowing his head one final time before turning and leaving. Everyone seated, except for Sokka who gasps outraged, dissolves into a quick fit of laughter. <br/>“TOPH!!!!” yells Sokka glaring at her.<br/>Eventually everyone regains their composure and remembers Aang, who’s standing there looking around the room rubbing his neck, “So are we not going to jail? Because I tried to get the money and I really did plan on working something out with the owner but then before I could I knocked into their cabbage delivery guy and split all his cabbages and ended up getting caught sneaking around the kitchen, so yeah,” he finishes.<br/>Toph splays her hands, “Welcome to the real party. The bill and the staff have all already been paid, the table is bugged, and the party’s individual reactions to paying the bill are being observed,”.<br/>“What?”<br/>Suki once again takes the responsibility of explaining what’s going on to the latest victim to join them, “Toph is emotionally traumatizing her friends by lying to them and forcing them to stress and struggle to pay a bill that none of us can afford for her own amazement, and supposedly to teach us what she calls “life skills”, as she sits back here and listens. And one by one as we run away the staff is tasked to collect us and bring us back here to sit and watch with her as the rest of our friends squirm under the weight of not being able to afford what we already ate,” she finishes casting a quick glare toward the evil mastermind next to Zuko. Aang looks horrified but takes a seat down to Toph’s right regardless.<br/>“Congratulations,” says Toph, clapping, “Your escape is ranked fourth. You were caught and weren’t even trying to escape, just trying to talk it through, so last place for you,”.<br/>“YES!” Jin pumps the air. Turning around in their chairs ,everyone fixes Jin, who’s frozen mid-fits pump, with a quirked eyebrow in confusion. Jin lowers her fist and offers them a little shrug, “What? I am no longer last in the rankings now,”. They all shake their heads and look back out the window onto the table that’s just Mai and Katara now.<br/>“He... he, he’s dead to us Mai,” comes in over the speakers.<br/>Mai shrugs, “Okay, Katara,”<br/>“What are we going to do?” she cries as she runs her hands through her hair, disheveling it.<br/>Mai shrugs again. It’s quiet for a couple minutes as Katara continues running her hands across her face, her hair, and her dress. Mai sits there and goes back to inspecting her nails.<br/>Shu returns to the room hidden behind what the restaurant believes are mirrors shortly with a tray laden down with bowls of different snacks and some small packages of pretzels and popcorns. While another waiter follows behind him with a tray with their drinks: Toph’s latest pitcher of Shirley Temples, glasses for everyone else filled with the caramel brown cola mixed with bright red, and a bowl of extra cherries. They set everything down and exit the room.<br/>“Do you want pretzels or popcorn, Twinkle toes?”<br/>“I’ll take some popcorn I guess,”<br/>Toph chucks a package of popcorn at his head but Aang catches it before it makes contact with his forehead and digs in. It seems everyone’s restored to stress eating to make themselves feel better about what’s going on, what they’ve done, and what’s been done to them.<br/>Aang eats a few pieces of popcorn before he pauses his eating and turns away from the window and toward everyone else in the room, “This feels-”<br/>“Sadistic,”<br/>“Cruel,”<br/>“Torturous,”<br/>“Inhuman,”<br/>“Immoral,”<br/>“Hilarious,” adds in Toph.<br/>“Yes and no, this feels wrong,” says Aang and everyone bobs their heads in agreement “Tricking your friends into thinking they’re either going to go bankrupt or to jail is wrong and bad and mean,”.<br/>“And in 25 years we’re all going to look back and laugh,” she says, laughing as she finishes as if they just need help understanding how to do it.<br/>Zuko side eyes her, “The fact that you keep having to add years to how long till we look back and laugh should be pretty telling to you that we aren’t  EVER going to be looking back and laughing at this,”.<br/>“Hey, it’s my party,” argues Toph, in between handfuls of popcorn “Which I paid for, so I get to decide what we do and I’ve decided on this,”.<br/>Zuko flicks Toph in the arm, “Next year you’re not allowed to plan your own party,”.<br/>“Fuck you! This is amazing,”<br/>Everyone gathered into the back room groans at the thought of what her next birthday could look like. Toph slurps at her Shirley Temple and beams at them.<br/>Mai’s monotone voice filters in over the speakers, “I think you should go to the bathroom,”.<br/>“I AM NOT LEAVING THIS TABLE!”<br/>Mai rolls her eyes, “Your hair is all over the place, your dress is wrinkled from where you’ve been clutching it, and so far you’ve drunk four cups of tea and a lot of coffee, not to mention all the water during dinner and dessert,”.<br/>“I am not leaving. I can’t leave. I refuse to leave,”<br/>Mai glares at Katara, “Go. To. The. Bathroom. And get a grip on yourself,”<br/>Katara deflates back into her chair and hangs her head. Taking in the state of her dress and fingering her hair she looks up after a minute and nods. She pushes her chair back and on wobbling legs she stands up from the table. She has to use it for support to stand but she stands.<br/>Zuko inhales sharply, “She’s actually done it. She stood up from the table. And now she’s walking, very slowly and shakily like a newborn hamster-deer, towards the bathroom,”.<br/>“Finally,” draws out Toph, throwing a kernel of popcorn into her mouth “the plot was getting a little stagnant,”.<br/>“Again,” says Sokka “you do recognize that these are your friends and not pawns right?”.<br/>“Of course and right now our dear friend Sugar Pawn is walking to the bathroom,”<br/>Zuko sighs, “Okay she’s gone into the bathroom. And Mai has stood up from the table and she’s walked away. Yep, immediately after she went in. And Mai’s left the restaurant,”.<br/>The door opens and everyone turns to look at it as Mai is escorted into the room flanked by both Shu and the host from earlier. She sighs, “Was this all an elaborate scam set up by Toph to torment us?”.<br/>“Yeah,”<br/>“Damn that’s hardcore you little bitch” Mai sits down to Toph’s left and grabs a handful of pretzels from a bowl on the table<br/>Toph clutches a hand over her heart, “Thank you,”.<br/>Zuko rolls his eyes, “Okay, Katara’s left the bathroom and she looks really tired but neater. And she’s looking around the restaurant, and she realized that Mai isn’t there and she’s deflated and she’s just standing there,”.<br/>A few minutes pass by, “She’s still standing there,” whispers Zuko to Toph.<br/>“Maybe we should just go get her and bring her back here,” suggests Aang.<br/>“We’ll give it a few more minutes before we pull her,” decides Toph and they keep watching her for a few more minutes just standing there, unmoving.<br/>“Okay, she’s on the move,” Zuko stands up to get a better view of the restaurant and the bar against it’s far wall. He’s gaze remains locked on Katara through the window but he can hear the rest of the room stand also. “She’s at the bar and she’s taking a glass of what looks like beer off the end of the bar and she’s walking again. Okay, now she’s drinking it as she walks. And she’s into the main lobby, and...and she’s walked out the door,”.<br/>Toph slow claps, “So it’s over,”. She leans forward across the table and turns off the speaker system.<br/>It takes only another minute for the door to open. Shu walks in first and is then followed by Katara, who’s drinking the beer she snatched from the bar. When she walks in she takes a long slow sip and flicks her gaze around the room. She takes in her friends in front of the wall that acts as a window, the snacks and drinks scattered around them, and the rest of the room. <br/>“I found Ms. Katara outside the restaurant sitting on the curb drinking a beer. I... I didn’t know where she got the beer,”<br/>“Thank you, Shu that will be all,” says Toph, extending to him an extra twenty dollars as a tip, which he collects before leaving and shutting the door behind him.<br/>For one final time, Toph splays her hands out in front of her, “Welcome to the real party Sugar Queen,”.<br/>Katara chugs the rest of her beer. Everyone takes a collective step back away from her. When she finishes she slams the glass down onto the table and wipes at the liquid that had collected on her upper lip. Snapping her fingers she points at Aang.<br/>“Well, um,” starts Aang with the explanation of what’s going on “apparently Toph already paid the bill and the tip and the rest of staff and has been sitting back here listening in through bugs at the table, but not on our clothes, to our conversations as we one by one ran for it,”.<br/>Katara stares at him. She blinks. Blinks again. She pulls a chair close to her and collapses into it. Everyone’s watching her, but they all refuse to meet her gaze even though they themselves played no part in the scheme; they still feel some guilt for its existence. Katara tries to control her breathing before speaking but she must not be able to wait. “I,” she takes a big, deep labored breath and on the exhale continues, “am” she needs another deep heavy breath, “going” another big breath “to” breathe “throttle” breath “you” breath, “all of you,” she chokes out wagging a finger toward everyone standing around the room.<br/>Toph lets out a small gasp, feigning confusion over Katara’s harsh words, “But we all thought it was hilarious though,”.<br/>“ONLY YOU DID!” screams the rest of the group as a smile threatens to envelope Toph’s face.<br/>“I am going to kill you,” announces Katara.<br/>Toph waves off her declaration and chuckles , “On our deathbeds we’re all going to look back and laugh at this,”.<br/>“You’ll be on your deathbed a lot faster after this,” she snaps back.<br/>Toph shrugs, “It’s my birthday, you can’t kill me,”.<br/>“Don’t. Tell. Me. What. I. Can’t. Do. You just watch me kill you,”<br/>Toph chuckles, “But I can’t watch you-,”.<br/>Katara eyes go wide and unblinking she glares down Toph, “Don’t. Finish. That. Sentence,” she cuts off. Toph stops and settles with just rolling her eyes instead.<br/>“But why, Toph? Why?” asks Zuko. After all this, he has to know. How did it come to this? Why did this happen to them? Was there anything they could’ve done to prevent it?<br/>Toph shrugs again, “I needed something to do for my birthday, what with my parents footing the bill and this being my first birthday away from them where I could do what I wanted and with people I wanted for the whole day. So, I knew it had to be a good one. So yeah, it was this, a grand lycarny mystery dinner party or like a bouncy castle and some hot dogs in the park,”.<br/>Everyone stares at her slack jawed. Zuko has no words, or thoughts, or feelings. It’s just all so much. Sokka, it appears, recovers first because he screams out “A bouncy castle? Dear Spirits, why?” he throws his arms out before pulling them back to cradle himself “You should’ve just picked the bouncy castle,”.<br/>Aang clutches his head in his hands, “We could’ve had a bouncy castle,” he mumbles.<br/>“Why couldn’t it have just been a bouncy castle?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The inspiration of how this even came to be is beyond me. Maybe from an episode of dining and dashing from That 70s Show, or from remembering me and my idiot friends at Olive Garden one time at high school when we were weird and dumbasses (we didn't dine and dash though, no worries), or maybe my extremely weird brain.<br/>Toph's icon in this is Chris McClain from Total Drama Island. She's thriving off the utter chaos of it.<br/>I don't know how this ended being so long and so weird but oh well and yeah the title is lame but it's all I got for right now so deal with it please and thank you.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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